This is, for better or worse, a common analogy. I have a 12 year old stepson, and I have macaws. I can see the similarities without needing to equate them in value in some way, but if my stepson were disabled, I might take issue with the analogy, maybe. They certainly are different living beings with different levels of need. None of this has much bearing on how the beings are treated, unless, perhaps it helps the parrots. I'm not going to put my stepson in a cage, but I am going to treat my macaws like kids to some degree because I try to value them in ways that move beyond the "possession" model of "pet." I think, generally, that the child/parrot analogy benefits the parrots without doing much harm to the children to whom they're compared. I'd like it if all of our community members could give each other the benefit of the doubt.