Responses

Nope, it was more along the lines that they weren't "perfect". He specifically sought out a powerful cold type for his wife because the weakness of his fire type was overheating. He wanted a perfect child with both fire and cold who could use their power without limit by continuously cooling/heating. It's not that they were weak, they just didn't have that balance so I think the reference was them as "failed experiments". I don't remember which episode it was, sorry.
Question, was it ever explicitly stated that the Todaroki children other than Shouto are weak?