Meet Leigh Weitzen | Austin Moms 2022 Contributor

I’m Leigh Weitzen. When I initially thought about and prepared for motherhood, I envisioned myself going with the flow of how things are conventionally done, never really questioning anything. That all shifted after having my daughter, Hazel, and I became someone I never thought I would become: a crunchy mom. 

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I struggled for the first few months adjusting to motherhood, never knowing if I was doing it right. My daughter only fell asleep if she cuddled on top of me, she never warmed up to bottle feeding, and preferred exclusively being held and carried rather than being in a stroller. I felt down on myself for not knowing what to do because in my mind, I was doing it all wrong. 

It wasn’t until my mom reminded me to follow my instincts when everything changed. I shifted from “why is everything I’m doing not working?” to “what works best for me and my daughter?” 

I became a breastfeeding, babywearing, co-sleeping, attachment parenting, Birkenstock wearing (well to be honest, I’ve had my Birkenstocks for years now) mama. Someone I never knew I would become let alone someone I never even knew existed. In the end, embracing my crunchy-side all made sense for me. But don’t worry, I’m not at the level of giving birth in a flower bloomed meadow, and I never got the hang of cloth diapering. 

I grew up in a small New Jersey town on a horse farm with my parents, sister and brother. Plus a dog, rabbits, chickens, a guinea pig, and a multitude of cats. My parents are hippies at heart, strongly supporting an organic lifestyle, and jamming out to Willie Nelson whenever they can. My mom even attended Woodstock when she was a kid! I always admired how they lived their life by following their dreams and working in an industry that promoted hard work and endurance. My parents cared for and raced horses for a living, and devoted their lives to their love of the sport. Growing up in such an unconventional setting, I was bound to carry on that dream-following, adventure-loving, hippie mindset into my own life, especially now as a mother. 

As a former marketing project manager working in various fields including cybersecurity, retail, food, finance and education, to a now stay-at-home mom, I blend my organizational skills with my hippie spirit and plan fun outings for my daughter to enrich her nature loving sense of adventure. 

Before becoming a mom, I lived for a different type of adventure. I flew my first airplane when I was 16, I crowd surfed at every punk show I attended, and always seemed to get on stage to dance with the band, I flew a helicopter in my twenties, and fell in love at first sight with my husband, Justin, almost thirteen years ago on a train heading into New York City. 

Justin and I have been inseparable since the day we met. Spending the entire day together, taking in the sights and sounds as we explored the city during the day, to watching the moon rise while at a rooftop party next to the Empire State building. It was pure magic. And since then, every moment with him has felt like home. We were married in 2015 and jetsetted to Europe for our honeymoon, where we indulged in local culture, drank wine and ate all the baguettes, croissants, and cheese we could find. After our honeymoon, we decided to start a new journey together and relocate to Austin. It was here that we found ourselves, great friends, became vegan, started our family and lived the life of adventure we always imagined.

Fast forward to now, my favorite type of adventure is hearing what hilarious things my two-year-old says, exploring new playgrounds with her and launching @austinplaygrounds to capture all the cool playscapes, eating our way through the ATX vegan scene (tacos are life), and preparing for baby #2 to join us in September. My sense of adventure may have settled down a bit, but I look forward to the days where we tote two tots to ACL, dancing the day away and embracing that everyday magic.