find someone with good social/parenting skills, a good teacher or a good friend, and mimic them. use them to model new behaviors. sometimes it takes more effort to open ourselves to new behaviors than to actually find someone to model them on/from. early behaviors are very deeply ingrained, and take strong 'rooting out', not just an overlay,,, tho that is better than no change at all.....

here is a little recipe for change that has served me well:
1) DECIDE to change;
2) decide WHAT to change;
3) CHANGE as much as you can every time you can;
4) PRAISE yourself for every time you change, no matter how much~!

the last step is very important. good parenting involves a lot of praise and positive suggestions. relinquish any habit or desire of focusing on how defective, or deficient one is, and focus instead on how wonderful it is to finally be making changes~!