I agree with Zach, very hard to destroy. I still rotate out my bread & butter Nikon bodies after 100,000 clicks or so but only as a precaution*. They then become my back-up cameras, then fishing cameras, then IR converted…and so on. They just don’t die.
Regarding your question at hand, I suggest either keeping the D80 and buy her a D60, or give her the D80 and get a used (or new) D300. No, it’s not above your skill level [it’s a camera dude, not brain surgery ;)] , and they’re coming down in price. BTW-the D300 does not have video like the D5000 (and D90) . The D300 & D80 do have wireless commander mode, a very useful and neat strobe feature for fish shots, etc. (the D5000 does not) Plus they’ll auto focus your non AFS lenses (the D5000 does…not). And a D300 is way more usable with cool old manual focus Nikkor glass w/ full metering and exif data.
Hope this helps.
DB
* I seriously doubt many used cameras on the market see that many frames. A. Otto’s camera notwithstanding. ::)