Bozeman has a serious shortage of good daycare. It also has almost a complete shortage of infant care. We didn’t think to call ahead for daycare when we planned this move, so if you are moving to the Bozeman/Belgrade area, think about this! Many of the daycares that are licensed for infants have a waiting list of several months to a couple of years. This includes both daycare centers, in-home daycares, group daycares, and preschools that accept infants.
Many people in Bozeman seem to use nanny services. This is especially popular in the summer months when MSU students look for part-time work. However, expect to pay a nanny 10-12 an hour, which is of course fair for one on one care…but lots more expensive than a typical daycare provider would charge.
The one daycare we found with an opening for an infant was not a place where we would want our 3 month old to be. It was a very young lady with 12 children at a time in a small, two room area. The house was quite large, but she restricted the children to two small rooms. There was no fence in her yard, and the neighborhood is new with plenty of construction (nails, glass, etc.) everywhere. Her “helpers” were unsmiling and didn’t get up to introduce themselves, but instead sat there looking like they were on the tenth circle of hell (hey, I don’t want to watch 12 kids either…but I don’t work at a daycare). I asked her what the infants did all day and her answer was “Well, we have swings and bouncy chairs.” Great, so you’re telling me basically that you’ll never bother to hold my kid. She wouldn’t show me where the babies slept, because apparently there were babies up there at the time. Whatever. Her policies were also pretty unreasonable in my experience…she was allowed to take up to 4 weeks of vacation a year, at which time she would “try her best to give the parents notice” but parents were not allowed any vacation or sick days during the year. Also, she charged for all major holidays (even Thanksgiving and Christmas) if they fell on a weekday, even though she would not be open on those days. All I can presume from a policy like that is that Bozeman is so hard up for daycare that it doesn’t even matter what their policies are…people will have no choice but to follow them and pay inordinate amounts of money. Need money? Open a daycare in Bozeman. You’ll have a waiting list in no time.
Thankfully my husband works out of the house, so he is going to stop working for a while while our baby grows. It’s a great option if you can get it. If you plan to move to Bozeman and you know you will absolutely need daycare, make sure you have a solid plan in place.
