Nurse managers or Assistant NM with little kids

I have a husband who is very supportive of my career and does the majority of the child-related duties and dinners during the weeknights. Also, I try to balance my time at work - there are plenty of times when I have to stay until 6 or 7pm, or come in on a weekend. To offset that, I give myself permission to leave at 2:30 or 3pm on those other days when there's not much going on and everything is settled and under control.

Considering the hours of the two positions, I would say that the ANM position is probably a "charge nurse +" position, and you would be working on the floor doing patient care in addition to some admin duties, while the NM position would be predominantly administrative.

Do you think an assistant nurse manager works less hours? The ANM position is listed as 7-3 and the NM as 8-4:30 I originally applied for the ANM because of the hours and less responsibilities but after seeing my resume they wanted me to consider the NM position.

I cannot speak for every ANM position, but from experience being an ANM in the acute care setting, no, the ANM position is not less hours... In fact, whatever hours are posted corresponds with the shift of the nurses because those are the hours you will be working on the floor as a front-line manager. You can sometimes be pulled into an assignment or to cover breaks... When that is not the case, you will be freed up to put out fires, oversee quality, direct reports, staffing, productivity... etc.... Prior to the start of your shift and after work are additional hours worked to complete the administrative needs of your job (Staffing, scheduling, performance reviews... etc).

The Nurse Manager works long hours too... Especially since he/she has to put some face-time on the unit as well and work with the ANMs operating the unit. In addition to conducting admin duties that the ANM usually does not perform, the Nurse Manager has his/her fare share of other projects etc to oversee and meetings to cover....

I compare the two based on a typical day.... Where I work, ANMs work the floors most of his/her shift.... The higher you go up, the chances of you providing direct patient care drops and there is less opportunities and expectations that you put face-time on the unit during a shift or having to talk to visitors, caregivers, or patients.