Alright, so my work around for this has been pretty crappy (read on) so I'm seeing if there is anything better.

Assume I have an extending oblivion bridge, it's activated by a trigger box set as child, simple enough.

However, also assume I don't want the bridge extending unless a certain condition is met.

I can't disable and enable the trigger box, because it's enabled state depends on the parent. The bridge should always be there.

My two solutions are to initially put the trigger box in an unreachable location, and move it to the correct location once my conditions are met and therefore allowing the bridge to extend. I don't like that. The other solution is to create a new trigger box and script which only activates the parent under my conditions. I really don't like that.

Do you guys have any smart alternatives?

I would do it using option 2. There should be no problem with that unless you have hundreds of bridges you would have to script.

If the bridge is to extend once and remain that way, then eliminate the trigger box, and just have the quest script activate it directly when the other condition is true, plus the player is within some distance of the bridge. ( Player.GetDistance ) The only benefit of a trigger box is to be able to have it reset and repeat.