In People ex rel. Sibley v Sheppard, 54 NY2d 320 [1981] the child and his mother resided in the maternal grandmother's household from the child's birth in December 1968 until early August 1970. A neglect proceeding was filed against the mother in October 1969. The child was removed from the maternal grandmother's home shortly after his mother's death in 1970 and placed in a non-kinship foster home where he remained for about one year, and the maternal grandmother and her family visited him regularly. In 1971, the child was moved to the home of the paternal grandparents who then adopted him in 1972. The maternal grandmother and her family visited him frequently until the finalization of the adoption. Upon the adoption, the paternal grandparents obstructed the maternal grandmother's contact with the child. However, between 1972 and 1978, the maternal grandmother and relatives consistently made attempts to visit the child but saw him infrequently. The Court of Appeals affirmed the lower court rulings, and granted the maternal grand- mother's petition for postadoption visitation over the objection of the adoptive parents/paternal grandparents, which met the "certain or limited" statutory requirements that "one or both parents have died . . . and a relationship between the grandparents and grandchild has been established" (People ex rel. Sibley v Sheppard, 54 NY2d at 327). Due to the existing family relationship, the Court of Appeals found that continuation of visits by the maternal grandmother posed no "embarrassment to natural parents, conflicts between the authority of the natural and adoptive parents, or invasion of the natural or adoptive parents' privacy" (Id. at 328). In People ex rel. Sibley v. Sheppard, the Court granted visitation rights to a grandmother of a child over the objections of his adoptive parents. In that case, the child had experienced the death of both of his natural parents and had established a strong bond with his grandmother while he was in foster care. The Court reasoned as follows: "The State, in its role as parens patriae, has determined that, under certain limited circumstances, grandparents should have continuing contacts with the child's development if it is in the child's best interest. When one or both of the parents have died, the child usually suffers great emotional stress. By enacting section 72, the Legislature has recognized that, particularly where a relationship between the grandparents and grandchild has been established, the child should not undergo the added burden of being severed from his or her grandparents, who may also provide the natural warmth, interest and support that will alleviate the child's misery." (People ex rel. Sibley v. Sheppard, 54 NY2d 320, 327, supra.) The Court recognized that adoptive parents have many of the same rights as natural parents to direct the upbringing of their children, that "[t]hese aspects of family integrity remain inviolate" (People ex rel. Sibley v. Sheppard, 54 NY2d 320, 328, supra), and that grandparent visitation should not be ordered where it might hinder the adoptive relationship. It went on to note, however, that the adoptive parents in this case had admitted that visitation would be in their son's best interest and that an order for established visitation times was necessary only to prevent traumatic observations of strife by the child.