DISCIPLINE. There are many ways to instill and enforce it in children.

And I will share with you a method that I have been dabbling in.

Some child experts call it The Seelah Method. My parents used it on me when I was growing up to great effect.

When I was around six or seven, I loved to play with the moving rubber handrails of escalators.

I would grab a handrail with both hands and pretend to push it along, making it seem that it was I, not the electric motor that whirred under my feet, that was moving the escalators.

My parents hated that.

"Stop it now! You'll hurt yourself!" my mum would say. I never listened.

That changed one day when we were at Thomson Plaza.

We were on the second floor of the mall, and while my parents discussed with my aunts where to go next, I started playing with the handrail of the downward-moving escalator.

Then it happened - my hand got snagged between the rubber and metal portions of the handrail and I was lifted off my feet.

I fell into the space between the up- and down- escalators and tumbled all the way down like a rag doll on a slippery slope.

As I was about to hit the bottom, a woman on the up-escalator tried to save me by grabbing my arm.

An idea that was good only in theory.

As she held on, she dragged my scared-limp body all the way back up to the second floor - doubling my trauma - when she could have simply let me stay in a heap at the bottom of the escalators.

Scolded

Worse, when I reached the top, my mom looked right into my eyes.

"See lah!" she yelled.

"Play with the escalator some more? See lah!"

Since that day, I have never played the fool near escalators.

So now, I have taken to trying The Seelah Method on The Spawn.

My rules are simple. If he misbehaves and tries to do something that may hurt him, I warn him.

If he continues to do it, I let him.

If he gets hurt, I let him have it.

So far, he has learned not to jump off the bed ("See lah! Jump some more. Bang your knees pain right?) and touch hot drinks ("See lah! Very hot right?").

The logic behind The Seelah Method is a familiar one - what doesn't kill you, can only make you stronger.

Therein lies the trick - I can only let The Spawn do things that will not kill him or land him in hospital.

So if you choose to try this method of disciplining your child, be warned.

If your child gets badly hurt in the process, you'll hear your own mother's voice long before you see her.

"See lah! Be an idiot parent, now your son has only one arm. See lah!"

This article was first published in The New Paper.