Doodle duck pays tribute to mothers during Mother's Day

She patiently teaches us the skills we need to survive and selflessly offers loving protection when our trust exceeds our current capabilities.

Mothers of many species play this role every day, largely without recognition. It's for this devotion that Google has honored moms from all over the world Mothers' Day with a three-part interactive Doodle featuring a duck and its ducklings.

Mother's Day as we know it today was celebrated for the first time in 1908, when Anna Jarvis held a memorial in honor of her mother, Ann, a peace activist who took her mother's day. Is occupied wounded soldiers on both sides of the civil war. Thanks to Anna Jarvis' efforts to officially recognize the day as a holiday, President Woodrow Wilson signed a proclamation six years later, designating the second Sunday in May as a national holiday to honor mothers.

Following the tradition of Google on Mother's Day, the search giant has turned to nature to represent the parent who took us to this world; previous representations included a cactus and dinosaur. This year, three buttons on the Doodle allow us to go from a series of life lessons from a duck mom to her young offspring.

She tries to teach her young children the right way to waddle – not without facing certain challenges – and that sometimes it is necessary to change direction. And when their plans are heading south, she welcomes them back to the fold, er, crowd.

Happy Mother's Day to all moms, no matter the species, who help us learn to spread our wings.