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"&amp;quot;That better be a boy in your stomach, beyotch!&amp;quot; Okay, I&amp;amp;#8217;m a little behind the times and I&amp;amp;#8217;m just now reading Philippa Gregory&amp;amp;#8217;s The Other Boleyn Girl. Damn, that King Henry really needed a son!All that English business about providing an heir and a spare...it&amp;#x27;s not exactly ancient history. I mean, as recent as the 1980s, providing England with a son was Princess Diana&amp;amp;#8217;s first duty (technically, I&amp;#x27;d have to check the Royal handbook, but I think that&amp;#x27;s what Tina Brown said). The other day, my dad made a joke about my needing to provide the Meanleys with an heir. &amp;amp;#8220;Erin, we need an heir!&amp;amp;#8221; Haha. Only one of my cousins on my dad&amp;amp;#8217;s side is married. The other, plus my sister and I, are all totally single. There are no grandchildren. Usually there is zero pressure from my parents about getting married or anything. My mom has never said, &amp;amp;#8220;I want grandchildren!&amp;amp;#8221; But I see the appeal in having a legacy. The notion of passing down anything&amp;amp;#133;a title or crown, property, talents, genes, knowledge, stories, is kinda cool. I said I wasn&amp;#x27;t into having a dog yesterday, and even owning a car was a pain in the ass when I had one, but&amp;amp;#8212;I did like being attached to something big. One of my pregnant friends said she is writing her will. Now she has someone to leave something behind to. But the thing is, I want a will, too! Do I have to wait for a man or a pregnancy?? I don&amp;amp;#8217;t really have anything to pass down, but I feel like I don&amp;amp;#8217;t belong to anyone in NYC. If I died or went missing, probably the first person to notice would be my roommate Erica. But I just met her 1.5 years ago on Craigslist; she doesn&amp;amp;#8217;t know my parent&amp;amp;#8217;s phone number. I just realized that. I better give that to her. Recently, I emailed my emergency contact (Melissa in Brooklyn) my parents&amp;amp;#8217; contact info, my sister&amp;amp;#8217;s work address, etc. But is there anyone within 3,000 miles that would be truly affected by my death? Not so much. This must be the crisis of me turning 30. I&amp;amp;#8217;m feeling mortal! Someone tell me to lighten up. But also&amp;amp;#8212;I really recommend The Other Boleyn Girl. It&amp;amp;#8217;s a fast, light read. What else? Do your parents needle you about grandchildren? Do you have a will? What do you hope to pass down to your kids? I&amp;amp;#8217;ve always been curious, if anything, what I would look like as a boy. Not that that&amp;#x27;s a reason to have children. But at least I can breathe easy on the matter of providing an heir to the throne of England. Yeesh! Photo: Courtesy Everett Collection."^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.glamour.com/sex-love-life/blogs/single-ish/2008/12/do-your-parents-bug-you-about>