Perception: Dad confirmed that he understood the message, then said “cool”, then made some weird joke.
Context: assuming this was really the first time when Dad heard the news.
Interpretation: Dad’s reaction is just the beginning of acceptance. More reactions are to come. In order to really accept such a serious news, his emotions must go through all the “stages of grief” (even this isn’t exactly a sad news - but the stages are similar)
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/grief
Perception: Dad confirmed that he understood the message, then said “cool”, then made some weird joke.
Context: assuming this was really the first time when Dad heard the news.
Interpretation: Dad’s reaction is just the beginning of acceptance. More reactions are to come. In order to really accept such a serious news, his emotions must go through all the “stages of grief” (even this isn’t exactly a sad news - but the stages are similar) https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/grief
Why? Plenty of people are capable of processing and accepting changes right away
The more serious a change, the stronger the emotional reaction.