You know those prodigy kids who seem like they're happy and kind of spoiled but you can't help but kind of feel like most of their parents' affection comes from the fact that the kid makes them look really, really good?

Yeah, it was basically that. That really isn't terrible parenting by mage standards and it's less fucked up than pretty much everyone else got, so it's not as though his childhood was unhappy, but I do think he ended up halfway aware of it and unconsciously felt really weird about it by the time he was an adult but never really paid much attention to it because that's basically how things go in mage families.

It should also be noted that he was even more insufferable than he is presently because he needed some time to figure out interpersonal diplomacy and tact and whatnot.