How refreshing to see other spouses going through the same issues as myself! This too happened to me after my husband returned home from a 15-month deployment. We needed some alone time to catch up and his family wanted to visit with him as soon as he came home. We talked about it and he spoke with his parents and let them know that he wanted to come home first, relax and spend some quality time with his immediate family and then his parents and siblings would be the first ones he would visit with as soon as he was ready to visit. If they do not understand, THEY are being selfish, not you. But luckily, his parents did understand and true to his word, after a week of relaxing, eating some home cooking, and getting regular showers and sleep, he was a new man. Besides, no one wants to meet up with a stressed out solider who only wants to sleep. They got to visit with a rejuvenated solider happy and ready to mingle and entertain. We did invite them to the welcome home ceremony when they walked off the plane but after that, he was whisked away home to meet up with them later. There has to be a compromise, us military spouses arent completely irrational!