To answer your question, here is an extract from the official guidance notes.  These notes are used by army recruiters but the guidance for the navy/marines is similar.

Being a married, single or lone parent is not incompatible with service in the Armed Forces nor is it a barrier to joining the Trade/Regiment/Corps of their choice. Life in the Armed Forces, however, makes unique demands both on Service personnel and their families. They may find themselves on duty away from their home base for extended periods of time, often at short notice. No guarantees can ever be given about the pattern of working hours or the amount of time spent away from the home base.

Parents of children

All Service personnel must be available for shift duties, including night duties, parents are not entitled to special consideration. The Services, therefore, expect them to make full provision for care of their child(ren) during time at work. This means that they will often have to make provision for full time care of child(ren) which does not depend on their presence. If both parents are serving, this will usually mean that a third person will have to be ready to take responsibility for childcare since either or both parents might be required to serve away from home on exercise or operations.  If they are a parent they may be asked to explain their childcare arrangements before they are enlisted. This explanation will have to show how they intend to provide for 24 hour childcare during the period of their training, since the Services do not provide accommodation for families during Phase 1 training and cannot guarantee family accommodation during follow-up training. They are to think very seriously about this. They may not be enlisted until they can prove that they have made arrangements for childcare during the training period.

Single or lone parents

Single or lone parents must also think seriously about the provision of childcare after the training period. Although family accommodation is available, no special arrangements can be made for working hours or postings for single/lone parents and there will be many occasions when 24 hour childcare is essential. Service Personnel who are unable to meet their duty obligations due to childcare problems may be administratively discharged [i.e. made to leave the armed forces].

[Source: Recruiting Group Instructions, Chapter 11, Section 1 (updated May 2010)]

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