@mommunism I do not really think it is appropriate to judge his parenting skills with today's standards. He is a sole parent and should not have modern WESTERN society's values and knowledge. If he did, it would be even more magical, than having magic in this world.
And by the way if you say 'on average', it actually means that in some cases it is effective. Therefore you should not be completely sure that you are right on this point. Hope you can see my point.
And his motivation for acting like that is explained and comes from his experience. And I think it is a decent parenting, aside from the fact that if it was an actual medieval world he should have wed her at the age of 14 with decent dowry and she should have become a mother by her current age. And it would be considered good parenting by their standards.