There is a big difference between being a single mum and a mum with a partner that works away. I dont mean to post to offend single mums, they do a sterling job bringing up their kids on their own, but I dont get why any married woman who has a partner who works away gets to hear: "look at single mums they can do it, so you should." It is beside the point, and not useful at all. Mums with partners who work away have a whole different set of issues to deal with that single mums doesnt. And it seems that anytime a mum with a partner who works away dare to post about how she is feeling, she is jumped by a whole lot of single mums or other unsympathetic battle axes that just have to make a point, most notably to belittle posters situation.
Single mums have a great knack for resigning themselves to this new single situation, they have sought out other single friends they can chat to and moan to if needed, they often move close to family and friends and they build up a support network of other people as they have no partner and is not dependent on him.
A mum with a partner working away is most likely to have other married friends, who ususally are too busy with family life to listen, help out in emergencies as they have their own responsibilities and priorities. For sure, they are busy doing family things on the weekends, and are not likely to give up on family time to spend time with another mum and child who is lonely. Mums with partners working away may have initially moved away from the area they grew up in to live with partner and is therefore far away from any other family, and have nobody to rely on should either they or the child be taken ill, or other emergencies occur. They do not have the same support network around them as a single parent will build up. And because they HAVE a partner, they are unlikely to be able to, and moveing, either close to home, or to be where there partner is seem to be the most beneficial solution, but that is often not possible.
This is just one aspect which means you cannot compare a single mum and a mum whose partner works away and say: single mums can do it so you can! Not on the same level, they cant! But they could, if they were to become single, bet you that!
I am not going to go into the difficulties of sharing parenting with a partner who works away, and the issues that arise when partner comes home and upsets the routine you build up, and the missing and the longing, and the loving in a distance, being a mum with a partner who works away is one hell of a challenge!