"I run out of patience here and there" - When Michael Phelps opened up about struggles of parenting first son Boomer

Michael Phelps once confessed that parenthood had been tough at times, and he used to run out of patience with his first son, Boomer. The American swimmer married Nicole Phelps in 2016 and is now the father of four sons.

Phelps welcomed Boomer a few weeks before tying the knot with Nicole in May 2016. Boomer was in attendance at the Rio Olympics for Phelps' last Olympic appearance, in which he won a staggering five gold medals.

Phelps retired as the most decorated Olympian in history with 23 gold medals and shifted his entire focus to raising his kids. While the swimmer loved parenthood, he did admit to running out of patience at times.

"For me, I run out of patience here and there. You don't really know what you're doing. I ask Nicole, 'What do I do?' and she's like, 'I don't know,'" he told Pop Sugar in 2017.

Phelps, however, acknowledged that it was a process of learning together with Nicole and, hopefully, raising Boomer into a nice young man.

"I think it's just going through the process together, doing things day by day that are going to help Boomer grow up into hopefully a very nice young man. It's both of us. Every day is different, and every day brings something more exciting, like being able to see his personality come out more and more," he added.

Phelps welcomed his second son, Beckett, in 2018, while Maverick arrived the following year. The couple welcomed their fourth son, Nico, last year in January.

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"We didn’t want, like, a normal name" - Michael Phelps on how he named Boomer

Michael Phelps with Boomer at the Los Angeles Rams vs. Arizona Cardinals game - Source: Getty

Speaking during an appearance on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon in 2020, Michael Phelps opened up about Boomer's unique name and revealed they didn't want a normal one, thereby deciding to go with “Boomer, like boom boom".

“We heard the name, and we didn’t want, like, a normal name and I brought it up to Nicole and she was like, ‘Oh, that sounds kinda cool.’

“Boomer, like boom boom … we didn’t know either. We had no second option — once we picked that, we were like, ‘Yeah,’ ” Michael Phelps said. “He’s definitely gonna be the cool kid.”

Phelps has vowed never to force his kids into swimming or any career but revealed once that Boomer was turning into a "pool rat" like him. However, the eight-year-old has now taken a liking to football and recently 'crushed' in a game, leaving Phelps beaming with pride.