tug-of-love

British  

noun

1. a conflict over custody of a child between divorced parents or between natural parents and foster or adoptive parents

---

Example Sentences

Southampton may face a struggle to hold on to their Uruguayan midfielder Gaston Ramirez, who is wanted by Inter, Juventus and Fiorentina, while Capital One Cup-hoisting Swansea skipper and centre-back Ashley Williams could find himself the subject of a tug-of-love involving Liverpool, Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspur.

From The Guardian

As John gets more into music, his home life becomes a tug-of-love between two needy mother figures, Mimi and Julia.

From The Guardian

Elia Suleiman's understated, deadpan essay in observation is the most successful, in that it doesn't try to claim any special insight; while others – Benicio del Toro's American-tourist-in-trouble yarn, Julio Medem's impassioned threeway tug-of-love, Pablo Trapero's paean to local musicianship, featuring wildman film-maker Emir Kusturica – deal in more obvious material.

From The Guardian

Young, black and beautiful, Basquiat was acclaimed from the moment he appeared in SoHo; he was soon Madonna's lover, Warhol's collaborator—their joint works are dreadful—and a tug-of-love prodigy between galleries.

From Slate

Now he is two-and the point of contention in a tug-of-love between the mother and the family that raised him.

From Time Magazine Archive