I travelled cross country with my daughters when they each were ten. I got some looks. Then they heard us talk. There is nothing like the back and forth between a dad and a daughter who does not care about going to the Little Big Horn.
It’s that toxic masculinity again. The same reason when making airline reservations, the airlines made it a point not to sit women with non-family men, and children traveling alone? Gasp. Never sit them with men.
Don’t touch any women, leave lost kids alone.
Maleness is Mafia; you’re Don Corleone.
But it’s mostly you older guys doomed, as a rule;
The snow-flaky beta males are neutered in school.
I hope that you convinced them to go. Even as teens when we make the trip across the country they want to take the longer route so we can visit it.
They’ve only been to Devil’s Tower twice - that gets to be a bit too much of a detour for their old man.
I suspect that is the difference that mattered. We know what normal father-daughter conversation sounds like. The funeral tone of visiting someone who may be dying probably struck them (accurately) as unnatural. The staff merely misread the meaning. As a parent, I would be okay with that error if the police were called on me.