My girlfriend is struggling with shared custody. How can I help her?

My gf (25) is sharing custody of her 2yr old with her ex and struggling with the reality of not being with her little boy all the time.

They see their son on alternate days with weekends being kind of up in the air at the moment as they are still working that out.

Mostly it works out that she sees him for sure on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays and usually one of the days of the weekend, though it frequently changes as to which day. Her son is also at nursery on the Mondays and Fridays and she’s talking with her ex about sorting things out so that she isn’t losing two of her days with their son to nursery - losing is perhaps the wrong word as the nursery he attends is great and it helps him develop so much; but she is finding it hard that two of her days consist mostly of him being at nursery.

She’s having trouble dealing with the goodbyes and the repeatedly sending him away. There are days (as is normal at two, almost three) where he is in a bad mood and it kills her to think that she won’t get to see him the next day - it adds a whole tonne of pressure on her to try make each day she sees him perfect and to try make him perfectly happy all the time.

I get on really well with her son and I just want to do what I can to help her with this. Though I do understand it is something that will never be easy for her.