Q:

Describe past events with "clause+と+clause", single vs multiple occurences

A sentence (highlighted below) from Asahi Shimbun:
その父の愛情表現は荒っぽかった。娘が父の事務所に顔を出すと、「おお、来たか！」というなり、娘の頭をヘッドロックのように抱きかかえた。父から「愛情の洪水が押し寄せる」ため、話したいことも話せないまま短い面会時間は終わるのだった
Without any adverbs (e.g. いつも), how can it be decided whether the sentence is talking about a single occurrence or multiple ones? Is there a default value or does it simply depends on the context?

A:

The first sentence says pretty much that her father's expressions of love were rough.
Followed by an example (your highlighted text) 娘が父の事務所に顔を出すと、「おお、来たか！」というなり、娘の頭をヘッドロックのように抱きかかえた。
I think if you notice the (娘が父の)事務所に顔を出すと it pretty much suggests that "whenever she popped her face into the office"
This is because "to" is used for things like the transitions of seasons.  Things that happen with regularity.  If there was less context and it was just like "hairu to" (and when I entered~) then it could be a one-off instance.  Most written cases using "to" will talk about events that repeat in whack-a-mole-ian fashion.
Gambatte kudasai! ^_^

