What Alastor said, not so great growths but his early promotion and class options (paladin) make him a good early game character. Later on he will be outclassed so he is better off as a pair up unit (for MU for example). This is also since has has low Mag making him not so good at staffing later on.
Also to OP, do you know which children you will be using? I'd reccomend grabbing those after completing chapter 18, so they will have the Offspring seal (free promote yay).