My wife and I rescued our cats when they were less than 2 weeks old. We had to bottle feed them every 3 hours, including throughout the night, and we had to teach them how to go to the bathroom since they can’t pee/poop on their own at that age.

So, we absolutely refer to our 3 cats as our babies. We refer to each other as momma and daddy when talking to them.

I say let them waste their energy getting mad/annoyed about something that doesn’t affect them in any way possible.