Is there a right way to treat a novelty?

Usually everytime I ran into a novelty or a rare move, such as 1.e4 e5 2. Nf3 f5 or 2...d5, I don't worry about trying to punish the opponent (because obectively this is not a strong move), but make sure I don't fall into any kind of trap. Thus I usually don't get anything out of the opening, which means that the novelty/rare move has worked! (I mainly play 5 min blitz, but I would use the same approach in a long game as well).


Just wondering what other people do? What are your thoughts on this?